A Visit
by Shihanne
Summary: [YPC5GG] "It's important to study and do well in school, and it's important to take care of your friends, but you should take care of yourself as well." [sequel to Epistolary]


"What are you doing, coco?"

Coco walked up to Natts, who seemed to be holding a piece of paper from an envelope.

"Komachi sent a letter, nattsu."

"Oh! Urara sent one too, coco!" Coco held up another letter. "…Well, it was actually from Nozomi, but she says that for some reason she couldn't send a letter…it's not like her, coco."

A long pause, and then –

"She has a cold, nattsu."

"Oh, I see, that explains things, coco," said Coco. He sat there for two seconds. "Wait, what, coco? A cold, coco?"

"She has a cold and she didn't tell you because she didn't want you to worry about her, nattsu. Or at least that's what Komachi says, nattsu."

"…coco…"

Natts looked at Coco, looked back at the letter he was holding, looked back at Coco, and sighed.

"You should go see her, nattsu."

"Eh? But – "

"Not much is going on tomorrow and Karen is coming on Friday anyway, nattsu. So go ahead, nattsu."

"Wah, thank you, Natts, coco!"

He hugged Natts, who (with a very irritated expression) pushed him off and said, "Just have Syrup take you on his morning rounds tomorrow, nattsu."

* * *

"Oi."

Komachi, walking towards her classroom with Karen, saw Syrup in front of her, holding a letter.

"Oh, Syrup! Thank you so much for delivering my letter to Natts."

Syrup sighed. "Next time, just send your novel right away without asking, okay? It cuts down on the deliveries I have to make…"

"I just don't want to be rude, but if Natts is okay with it then I'll try not to burden you." Komachi put her finger to the envelope and started to open it.

"Are your rounds going all right?" said Karen.

"It's a little bothersome because a _certain person_ insists on sending letters to Coco every day…" Syrup sighed again. "But I'm setting into a routine in order to get stuff back and forth between here and Palmier, coming here in the morning and going back to Palmier at night, so it's a little better than not having a schedule.

Karen smiled. "Well, that's good to hear!"

"Anyway, just wanted to let you know. I brought Coco today."

"Eh?" said Komachi.

"Natts wrote about it in the letter too. Coco says not to tell Nozomi about this but to bring her to Natts House after school. He's going to meet you after he picks up some stuff. I guess Nozomi's making more trouble again…Well, I have to make some more deliveries, so see you later."

He turned around and walked off, and Komachi looked at the half-opened letter.

"Well, if Coco came all the way here, we should probably do as he requests…"

* * *

"Nozomi, you shouldn't have come to school today…you're clearly not in the condition for it."

Rin sighed as she all but dragged Nozomi towards Natts House.

"I had to come because I can't miss too many days of school…"

"Yes, but when you're clearly not in the condition, you shouldn't go. I don't care if you were overly upset about that test, you should have stayed home."

She pushed Nozomi into Natts House and took her up to the second floor, where she laid her down on the sofa.

"Why'd we come to Natts House…?"

"I have to work on some accessories today, but I want you where Karen and I can watch over you. So you stay right here and get some rest."

Rin went back down to the bottom floor, where she saw the other four.

"What's Coco doing?" said Urara, quietly so that Nozomi wouldn't hear.

"Syrup said he was going to get some stuff before he arrived."

Sure enough, there was soon a light tapping on the door, likely so that Nozomi wouldn't hear. Everyone looked up in the direction of the second floor before answering the door; it seemed like either they were sufficiently out of earshot or she was too delirious to even really notice.

They opened the door and walked outside to see, as expected, Coco in human form and holding what seemed to be a plastic bag with food in it.

"Nice to see you again, Coco!" said Urara.

"Hello everyone, Urara, Rin, Komachi, Karen; it's nice to see you again too," said Coco. "I assume you all know why I'm here…"

"We're glad you came," said Karen.

"So, tell me all about what happened."

Rin sighed.

"Well, it started on the day she sent you that letter about the test. That was also the day Syrup was being sent back and forth…"

"I remember," said Coco. "Milk intercepted her letter and tried to have it snuck back to her, but Nozomi saw right through it and sent the proper letter right away, the same day. Poor Syrup…"

"Well, Nozomi felt sorry for Syrup, so she took him out to get some food for him, which meant that she got home late…"

"…so she tried to stay up late to study for the test, right?"

"Yup," said Urara.

"I told her not to do something like that…but that's just like Nozomi."

Rin sighed exasperatedly.

"So then, the next day…"

* * *

"_Nozomi, you look really pale…"_

"_I'm okay…"_

_Nozomi gathered her stuff as she waited for class to start and stared blankly at the board._

"_Nozomi, I don't know if it's a good idea for you to be taking this test if you're not feeling well."_

"_No, I'm fine."_

_Rin kept looking back at Nozomi – or as much as she could without the teacher thinking that she was copying Nozomi's paper. Nozomi finished early, handed it in early, and promptly sat down and put her head on the desk. It wasn't the kind of silly thing she normally did; she legitimately looked tired._

_After class ended, Rin noticed that Nozomi was asleep._

"_Nozomi. Nozomi."_

_Nozomi groggily looked up at Rin._

"_Nozomi, you should go home."_

"_E-eh? Oh…I have to…go get something…"_

"_You look unwell and you really should go home and get some rest."_

"_I'm fine! I have to go pick up something…"_

_She picked herself up and started to run out, but Rin noticed she was noticeably panting._

"_Nozomi!"_

_Rin chased after her and caught up to her easily. "Nozomi, I'm serious!"_

"_Okay, okay…I'll go home after I pick that up…"_

_She stopped by a pastry shop and picked up a bag of cream puffs, and then started to head for home._

"…_have to write a letter before Syrup leaves…"_

"_Nozomi. Go home now and get some rest."_

"_Okay, but I have to send that letter…"_

* * *

"That…really sounds like something she'd do…"

"The day after that," said Rin, "Nozomi was most definitely sick and wasn't able to come to school."

"She insisted on writing her letter again that day and running over to get Syrup before he left," said Urara. "But I wouldn't let her, so I wrote her letter for you. I just wrote it exactly as she told me to."

"She said that she was 'fine'…"

"I checked on her and it seems that she has a fever," said Karen. "She does seem better than she did yesterday, but she's still insisting on doing things that she's really in no condition to do."

Coco sighed.

"All right, I think I've kept her waiting long enough. Let's go."

They opened the door and Coco walked in, going directly to the second floor.

* * *

"Nozomi."

"Oh, hello, Coco…" said Nozomi half-deliriously. The realization hit her relatively quickly and she suddenly sat up on the sofa. "E-eh…Coco?"

"Nozomi, why didn't you tell me you had a cold?"

"Ah…I…" She looked down. "Well, I didn't want you to worry…"

"I'm going to worry more about you if I don't know what's going on with you than if something bad's happening and I know. You should have let me know right away."

He sat down next to her on the couch.

"I told you not to overexert yourself…"

"I'm sorry…" said Nozomi. She lay back down.

"Don't be sorry. Here, I brought these for you." He pulled out the bag and emptied its contents: cream puffs, bean daifuku, pancakes, stuff that Nozomi liked.

He pulled out a bean daifuku and fed it to her.

"You should get some sleep, too."

"But Coco, you came all the way over here, and then if I just sleep, that'll mean your time over here is wasted just putting me to sleep…"

"I came to check on you and make sure you're going to get some rest. So sleep, okay?" He put a hand to her face. "It's important to study and do well in school, and it's important to take care of your friends, but you should take care of yourself as well."

"Okay…"

"Sleep well, Nozomi."

"…good night, Coco…"

Smiling, Nozomi slowly fell asleep on the couch as Coco watched over her. He wondered how she was going to get home when the actual night hit, but he supposed Rin would probably find a way around that.

About ten minutes into Nozomi actually falling asleep, Coco realized he was also somewhat tired too.

* * *

"Oi, Coco, I'm going to be making my rounds back to the Palmier Kingdom, so I hope you're – "

Syrup walked up to the second floor of the Natts House, but quickly caught himself upon seeing what was on the couch: the sleeping figure of a girl and, next to her hand, a curled-up, sleeping tanuki.

Syrup looked at the scene for a few seconds, and then smiled.

"Well, I guess I'll stay here for another hour then…"


End file.
